Mommy To Marathoner To Ultra-Momathoner: Midweek Motivation

Due to the fact that we love our "occasional" nanny and she had a lot of open hours this week, I got to run outside today! I didn't even plan on it, but my lovely nanny suggested I go out to run. What a novel idea?!? It was actually a gorgeous Pacific NorthWest day complete with sunshine!

Today was basically a sort of tempo/speed work day. The training program I have chosen to follow really does not go deep into specific workouts. It is more of run X amount of miles today. This means most times, I just try to pick up the pace a bit for some period of time. I also generally do this run on the treadmill, so I also didn't have a good feel for how fast I could go outside.

With all that in mind, this was a fun little run. Let's go over it...just because :D

Mile 1: Well this was a bit of a stinker because at 0.60mi I realized I had to pee really really bad! I was on a pretty public trail, but luckily enough for me, the grass was tall and it is pretty flat so I could see I was free of peds. Of course though, I pop-a-squat and wouldn't you know it-a cyclist comes flying by! Lucky for me, my hot pink shirt somehow camouflaged me in the high grass enough so he paid me no attention.

Mile 2&3: Nothing to eventful. I had my iPod on shuffle through my 25 most played songs. I figured this was a safe bet as most of the songs I play are for running purposes. For some reason though, every slow song I had played during this time and it was getting a bit frustrating....grrrrr.

Mile 3.5: The turn. I took a quick break for a Gu and a nice sip of Nuun. Then back on the stick. Not sure if this is why my mile 4 split is so slow or what.

Mile 4: Irritatingly slow in retrospect. Funny enough--it did not feel slow at the time.

Mile 5: This was my perfect pace. Everything came together and I felt like I could sustain this speed forever! It was just a comfortable spot to be.

Mile 6: I spotted a runner! She was ahead of me by a bit and in my head it was race on! Then somehow I got a rock in my shoe, so a quick stop to dump it out (I couldn't move it out of the way with my toe...grrr!) and I lost sight of her. Oh well. Run On...BUT WAIT---There she is!!!! Time to kick it into a higher gear!

Mile 6.5: I pass her like she is standing still (ummm, she most likely was going a little more than a jog, clearly she did not get the race memo!!) I decide I feel good and should keep up the pace and even push harder until I hit

Mile 6.80: Where I am running about as fast as my legs will take me--no that is not true--I was running as fast as my lungs were willing to let me right that minute. It was not pretty, I could tell by the look on the older couples face as I ran by. It really did not feel bad but I knew as soon as I hit

Mile 7: This was it. I needed to slow down. It didn't matter though, my run for the day was done!! I knew I had more in me. More miles and honestly I think more speed.

I know this is not the way to do speed work, but right now this is how it will get done. Next marathon I will do things the prescribed way, but for today this was good enough!